deFilharmonie - Daniele Callegari

Twice already, deFilharmonie has been a guest of our symphonic concert series. This time around, their initial program will set off on the grand Italian tour. Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) will lead down the lyrical path. The overture from Wilhelm Tell (1829), the famous opening of his last opera, needs no further introduction. In the last forty years of his life, Rossini's pen almost dried up: once in a while a salon piece - a religious work, occasionally. Among this composition series is the rarely performed cantata 'Giovanna d'Arco' (1832). Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909), the composer of the wonderful Notturno, represents a somewhat different Italy. To be sure, the lyrical melodic characteristics and (thus) his penchant for the belcanto are never far, but Martucci is more 'European' than 'Italian. Appropriately, he was the conductor of the Italian premiere of 'Tristan und Isolde'. As a composer, he wrote symphonies as well as chamber music. His music combines Puccini's Mediterranean agitation with Mahler's Germanic orchestral fever pitch. In this respect, he seems like a precursor of Respighi, who was, incidentally, one of his students. This is a characteristic, which Martucci shares with another piano virtuoso, Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), a composer, who in musical and philosophical temper belongs squarely into the 20th Century. deFilharmonie will present the 'Third Orchestra Suite Turandot', material distilled from his opera.